AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times
November 11, 2017
By Mark Dapin
Discovering his best mate from university was sexually abused as a child sends Mark Dapin on a quest for understanding.
I was drinking in a raucous, shallow bar at the Sydney Writers’ Festival with my UK publisher, Ravi Mirchandani, when Ravi told me he planned to publish a memoir by an author from the northern English town of Accrington, Lancashire.
I felt slightly nauseous. My forearms goose-pimpled.
“Is it Graham?” I asked. Twice.
“Yes …” said Ravi, carefully.
“Am I in it?” I asked. Twice.
“No,” said Ravi. “Is anyone with my name in it? Anyone who sounds like me?”
Ravi shook his head. I truly, deeply, viscerally did not want to be in Graham’s book.
“I think I should tell you what it’s about,” said Ravi.
“It’s the story of how Graham was sexually abused by his headmaster at school.”
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